My Credit Card Was Just Canceled Due to Fraud. Here's Why That's a Major Hassle

Credit card companies know that they need to be on the lookout for fraud. In the past, I've had my credit card declined at a grocery store due to it being in a different state from the one I reside in. I've also had my credit card rejected when buying gift cards, since purchasing too many of those can raise a red flag.

I was therefore disappointed when a $600 video game charge appeared on my credit card from a site I'd never heard of or used, and the charge somehow wasn't flagged as fraud. But thankfully, I caught it, disputed it, and avoided paying for it.

Once I reported that fraud, though, my credit card company immediately canceled my card and issued me a new one. It was kind enough to send it quickly, and it arrived a couple of days later in the mail. But from there, I had a big hassle on my hands.

When you need to redo all of your automatic payments

As a means of saving time and also helping to ensure that I don't miss key payments, I have many of my bills set to autopay. Unfortunately, the credit card account that all of those bills are linked to is the account I recently needed a new card for.

Now, you'd think your credit card company would, in that situation, be able to update those billers accordingly. But nope. Rather, that task was on me. So I had to go through my credit card statements for the previous 12 months and figure out all of the bills that were being paid on that card. I then had to reach out to each biller with an updated card number.

In most cases, that meant logging into different websites and inputting the new number myself. But in one situation, I had to make a phone call, which took even longer.

Why did I have to go back through 12 months of statements? Some of my autopaid bills aren't monthly ones. There's a subscription service my kids use, for example, that's billed once a year to my card. Had I not gone back several months, I would've missed it.

All told, it took me a couple of hours to update all of my autopay bills with my new credit card details. While I didn't lose money in the course of falling victim to credit card fraud, I lost time. And because I'm self-employed, time is money.

A way to make things easier next time

While I certainly hope my credit card won't get stolen again, the reality is that these things happen pretty often. So at the risk of sounding pessimistic, it's likely that at some point in time, I'll have my credit card canceled again, at which point I'll have to go through the process of updating my autopay bills.

Only the next go-round will hopefully be easier, because after this last incident, I created a spreadsheet with a list of bills that are set to autopay on that card. If I'm forced to repeat the process, I won't have to read through 12 months of credit card statements. Instead, I'll be able to consult my spreadsheet. This isn't to say that the process won't be time-consuming -- but perhaps less so than this past time.

If you have a lot of bills getting paid automatically through a credit card, you may want to compile a similar spreadsheet sooner rather than later -- ideally, before your card is stolen and you're forced to scramble to get everything updated. Plus, you may find the exercise helpful because there may be some expenses you're paying for that you've forgotten about -- and can cancel to save money.

Another takeaway here? Don't just rely on your credit card company's fraud algorithms to detect suspicious activity. Like I said, I once raised a red flag trying to buy milk and bread worth a total of $7 in another state. Yet somebody managed to charge hundreds of dollars of video games on my card without any reaction from my credit card company whatsoever.

So in addition to making a list of your autopaid bills, make a point to check your credit card statements thoroughly every month in case you, too, wind up with charges you didn't authorize.